


The Test

by mysupernaturalobsessions



Series: Divergent (A Destiel AU) [7]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Divergent Fusion, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Destiel - Freeform, Friends to Lovers, Kissing, M/M, Protective Castiel, Protective Dean Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-04 12:45:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6658237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysupernaturalobsessions/pseuds/mysupernaturalobsessions





	The Test

That night most of the new initiates sat together at dinner. It was a quiet affair. By that time everyone knew what Balth had tried to do to Cas the night before, and what he had done to himself that morning. 

“I just can’t believe it,” Charlie kept saying. Dorothy was crying silently at her side. 

Cas didn’t have much of an appetite. He dropped his fork down on his plate. Across the cafeteria, he saw Dean standing close to Jo, talking quietly. They both kept shooting glances over at him. Now that they had caught his attention, they stopped talking. Dean looked down and abruptly left the cafeteria. Jo returned to her seat. 

Cas excused himself from dinner soon after that. He found Dean in the main corridor, leaning against the wall like it was natural to stand in the middle of the complex doing nothing. 

“Hey,” Dean said. 

“Hi,” Cas said quietly. “Were you waiting for me?”

Dean shrugged. A slow smile spread across his face and Cas smiled back unabashedly. Dean pushed himself off the wall and started walking toward his room. Cas fell into step beside him. Their hands brushed as they moved and when they stood side by side in the elevator. 

At the end of the hall Dean opened his door and gestured for Cas to enter first. Cas felt inexplicably nervous, but he stepped inside. 

“Wanna see the view?” Dean asked, stepping around Cas where he stood hesitantly just inside the door. 

“Sure.”

Dean had a balcony that overlooked the southern half of the complex. In the dark the orange lights illuminated like stars. The cool air was a refreshing change from being underground all day long and the wind tousled his hair. Cas breathed deeply. 

He glanced over at Dean and caught him staring. Neither of them looked away. 

“Can I ask you something?” Cas said, disrupting the silence. 

“Sure.”

“What’s your tattoo?”

Dean smiled. “Do you want to see them?”

Cas nodded. Dean turned slightly and pulled his shirt off, revealing the wide expanse of his back to Cas’s gaze. 

There were five images in a vertical line down his back. They were entangled with black lines that extended up his shoulders. Cas traced the lines of them.

“The factions,” Cas breathed in realization. “Why do you have all of them?”

“I don’t want to be just one thing. I can’t be. I want to be brave and I want to be selfless, and intelligent, and honest, and kind,” Dean said. He turned to face Cas again, a small smile on his face. “Well, I’m still working on kind.”

He leaned in, watching for Cas’s reaction the whole time. He kissed him gently. Cas swayed forward into his chest and almost immediately pulled back again.

“I don’t want to go too fast,” he whispered, glancing up with wide eyes. 

Dean brushed Cas’s hair back. “It’s okay. I’ve already got my spot on the floor.” 

Cas smiled up at him. 

 

The morning of the final simulation test, Dean walked Cas down to meet the rest of the initiates. Charlie smiled knowingly at him. Dean took his elbow in the doorway, before they went to their respective positions. He leaned down to whisper in his ear. 

“Remember, they’ll be watching your hallucinations on the screen. So pass your fears the Dauntless way, but do it quickly.”

Cas nodded. “Right. If I’m too good they’ll kill me, and if I’m too slow then I’ll die.”

“Yeah,” Dean agreed hesitantly. “Good luck.”

Dean walked away to join the other Dauntless leaders and Cas joined the initiates waiting in a single line on the far side of the room. Leaders from all the factions were standing by the testing chair, with a clear view of the three display monitors. The sight of John Winchester left a burning feeling in his chest. He was talking to Meta, the leader of Erudite. Cas found it hard to decide which man he hated more. 

Charlie nudged Cas with her shoulder. “Haven’t seen you in the dorm in days.”

Cas blushed and looked away. Then they called his name first and all the blood seemed to drain from his face. He walked up to the simulation chair and sat awkwardly, pulling himself back all the way. 

Jo stood over him to attach the machine. She smiled at him encouragingly. 

“Good luck, Cas,” she whispered. She injected him smoothly. “I hope you make it.” 

Cas’s first fear was the fire this time. He panicked for a second, overwhelmed by the heat and the pain rising up his legs. He kicked futilely. Then he stretched, lifting his arms high above him so the binding on his wrists, while still tying him together, was clear of the pole against his back. He leaned forward and used the fire to his advantage, burning away the threads and then untying himself with shaky hands from the rest of the bindings. 

When he felt his feet touch the ground the scene evaporated around him, as well as the pain. He found himself in the same grey room with a dead man in front of him on the ground. Like every time, he shut the man’s eyes. He left the room and didn’t look back. When two people started chasing him, he turned and shot them. The scene changed before their bodies hit the ground. 

He was in Dean’s bedroom. 

“You did it,” Dean whispered, moving toward him. They kissed. Dean moved to take Cas’s shirt off, but Cas stopped him. 

“Dean.”

Dean pushed him down onto the bed and straddled him, holding his arms. 

“Dean, stop! Dean!”

“I thought you were Dauntless,” Dean said, his face just above Cas’s. He kissed down his neck. Cas kneed him hard in the groin and threw him off. 

Cas opened his eyes back in the testing room. Everyone was clapping as Cas stepped down from the chair. Dean met him at the edge of the room. 

“Please, tell me you weren’t watching that,” Cas muttered.

“Would it make you feel better if I said no?” 

Meta walked up to them, his smile wide. “You did well, Cas. Just one final test.” He handed him a gun and gestured to the doorway where Cas’s parents and Jimmy were walking in.

Cas shook his head immediately. 

“You know what to do,” Meta said. “If you want to be Dauntless.”

This isn’t real, Cas reminded himself. He raised the gun level and fired. 

When he woke up this time, he could tell the simulation was truly over. Dean was at his side in an instant. 

“You okay?” he asked. Cas glanced over at the leaders. They were talking amongst themselves. Dean followed his gaze and spoke quietly. “It all looked good to me, okay? Let’s go.” 

Dean pulled him out into the hall with urgency. Cas was still a little shaken up from the simulation, but he followed along pliantly. Dean turned down a different hall and stopped abruptly. He spun around, face close to Cas’s while he whispered. 

“Something’s going on.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure exactly, but Zach’s been up to something, and with all the faction leaders here…things are getting dicey. I’m going to keep an eye on things tonight, but you should stay close to your friends, okay? Go to dinner with them, go to bed early. Stay in the dorm tonight.”

Cas nodded. “Okay.”

He didn’t see Dean at dinner that night until the end, when he and Zach stood by while the Dauntless leader congratulated the accepted initiates. Then, before they dismissed everyone, they were told everyone was getting tracking devices inserted, for security purposes. 

The injection stung for a minute. Before he left the cafeteria, he glanced back at where Dean was standing against the back wall, eyebrows furrowed. He looked worried. Cas wished he could go to him and tell him everything would be fine.


End file.
